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Welcome to my infrequent email newsletter! The Health Kinesiologist - Introduction Sign
up for our free eNewsletter - Contribute to
the eHealth Kinesiologist In
all newsletters the writer(s) have some particular points
of view they disseminate. Generally we like those newsletters we
agree
with and do not like the others. I think it is also important
to read the “others” too, because it often helps us understand
their points of view and they sometimes do point out our
deficiencies of knowledge (and theirs!).
I
am trained as a scientist and in a “past life” in
academia / teaching / research / publishing scientific papers,
and so on,
I discovered one very important fact: Proof is in the
eye of the beholder”. Proof is a belief system, an emotional
circumstance, not just facts. (This is especially true in health
matters.) Facts usually have more than one plausible interpretation,
so usually we use whatever interpretation supports our existing
beliefs rather than the other way around.
I
love to tell small stories to make points. Analogies, or
allegories, often help understand processes more easily than “just the
descriptive facts”. Here is one such story I use in
Health Kinesiology classes to illustrate an alternative interpretation
of the facts. (The following story is not true.)
The “Facts”: When
I was in college I played basketball. The more I played the more
our team won.
The
Interpretation: The first one which comes to mind is that
my team won because I was such a good player. What else could
explain such a good result? (Think about this yourself before
reading on.)
The “Truth”: I
was the worst player on the team. I only got to play when we were
already winning anyway.
My
point here is that “facts” will often be used to “prove” something.
But sometimes there are better alternative interpretations
which are much closer to the truth. In my upcoming newsletters
I will
address this issue frequently in many different ways, but
let me give a very good example here. Vaccination will be
a big future
topic in these newsletters.
It
is commonly believed that the Polio vaccine (vaccines, actually)
was responsible for ending the polio epidemic of the 1950's. The
medical establishment tells us this. They point out that before
the vaccine was introduced polio incidence was high. A while afterwards
they point out that polio incidence was low. This really is the
fact. Proof, right? Well, no, actually. In almost all cases
a vaccine is developed and introduced after the peak incidence
of the disease has been reached and is already declining. In
Japan, for example, the polio epidemic started, reached a peak,
declined, all without the availability of a vaccine. In
the USA on the other hand the incidence of polio increased again
after the vaccine was distributed and took longer to decline than
what would be expected otherwise. It is clear that the vaccine caused
these extra cases of polio. I was recently told by an official
at the so–called Health Protection Branch of the Food and
Drug Administration in Canada that “The only cases
of polio in Canada are caused by the polio vaccine.”
So,
the proof that the polio vaccine worked is just not there if you
look at the unbiased data. This sort of topic will be discussed
more deeply in future newsletters.
I
do have some biases, believe it or not, so here are some of them.
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© Health
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